I go to prepare a place for you...

"...And if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also." John 14:3

This is part of the "Upper Room Discourse" that is recorded by John in his gospel. Jesus begins using language that may slip by us in our culture. In Hebrew marriage customs of the time that Jesus was speaking there was a process to marriage different from our own. In brief it would usually look like this:

The bridegroom to be would go with his father to the perspective brides home. The fathers would talk and come to an agreement about the marriage and the other details. The couple was then legally engaged. Though they were not allowed to live as a married couple it took a legal divorce to separate them at this point. The bridegroom would return to his father's house and prepare a place for he and his new bride to live. This would take an undetermined amount of time. The marriage would occur when the place was finally prepared. But who gets to pronounce the place "prepared"? In the cultural practice of the day, it was the bridegroom's Father who would say that the place was ready, and send his son to go and retrieve his bride.

Some exciting points about this...it sheds light on what Christ was talking about when He placed it in the Father's hands as to when He would return for His Bride (that's us!). The thing I would have us be most cognizant of this week is the reality that Christ used emotionally powerful imagery when talking about His level of motivation to come and retrieve us. Imagine a young bridegroom, bursting with passionate love for his bride to be, each day preparing the place, anxiously awaiting the moment when his father will come in and say, "It's time! The place is ready and the time is right. Go and get your bride!" No prophecy needs to be fulfilled before He comes to retrieve us, it could happen to day, even before you finish reading this sentence. And I, for one, hope that it's today! And as excited as we are to see Him, I believe He is more excited to see you! Have a great week!